This Week on GR
by C. L. Cook
Worse than this is the complicity, in many cases, of the Canadian government. Jennifer Moore is the Latin America Program Coordinator for Mining Watch Canada. Jen spent years in Latin America as a freelance print and broadcast journalist, specializing in communities affected by Canadian-financed mining companies.
Jennifer Moore in the first half.
Listen. Hear.
And; in 2009, the mildly left of centre president of Honduras, Manuel "Mel" Zelayas proposed a change to the country's constitution. Mel wanted to begin modest land reforms, reforms that would, among other things, recognize the rights of indigent share-croppers. Within weeks, the oligarchs running Honduras answered Zelayas' modest proposal with one of their own: The military kidnapped the president, spiriting him into exile, and cracked down hard on human rights activists, journalists, and indigent farmers. Canada and the United States, the two great democracies of the hemisphere, at first tacitly, then actively supported the coup, and continue to do so, even as the country experiences oppression and injustice not seen in Central America since the terrible reign of the death squads in the 1980's.
Jesse Freeston is a Montreal-based freelance journalist and documentary filmmaker who has spent the better part of the last three years documenting the struggle of the dispossessed farmers of the Aguán Valley and working to bring their story to the world. Freeston's film, Resistencia documents the farmer's struggle: Burned out of their homes, murdered, deprived of access to traditional lands, schools, clinics, and vital infrastructure destroyed, the families of the Aguán still refuse to be moved; "occupying, defending, and working more than 5,000 hectares of palm oil plantations."
Jesse Freeston and the Honduran Occupy Movement in the second half.
And; Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV Radio broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to bring us up to speed with on-going events going on on our streets and beyond.
But first, Jennifer Moore and revisiting a victory for Ecuador.
Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Monday, 5-6pm Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.ca. He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/
G-Radio is dedicated to social justice, the environment, community, and providing a forum for people and issues not covered in the corporate media.
Jesse comments:
Mel did a lot more than just the land reform proposal. Hiked minimum wage, signed ALBA and Petro Caribe, cracked down on the local oil companies (bringing the price of gasoline down tremendously even when the price internationally was going the opposite direction and HN imports its oil), invested in schools, made plans to turn the US air force base at Palmerola into a commercial airpot, etc...it was nothing at the level of Venezuela or Bolivia or Ecuador, but it wasn't peanuts...and his overthrow affected most sectors in the country in one way or another. That was reflected in the Resistance movement that had participation from every sector you could imagine. So, when you say they cracked down hard on farmers, human rights observers, and journalists...you might want to add "and virtually every other sector of the country's poor majority" or something to that effect. In fact, after the farmers its probably been the LGBT, teachers, and students that have gotten it the worst.
